![]() ![]() ![]() Of all families headed by just a woman, 31.6 percent live in poverty, compared to only 15.8 percent of families headed by just a man. Not surprisingly, poverty rates are higher in families with one adult than in those with two adults (because they often are bringing in two incomes), and, in one-adult families, they are higher in families headed by a woman than in those headed by a man (because women generally have lower incomes than men). Across the nation, poverty rates differ from one type of family structure to another. There are many types of family structures, including a married couple living with their children an unmarried couple living with one or more children a household with children headed by only one parent, usually a woman a household with two adults and no children and a household with only one adult living alone. Almost two-thirds of African American children and Latino children live in low-income families. Almost 44 percent of American children, or some 32.5 million kids, live in such families (Addy & Wright, 2012). Children living in families with incomes below twice the official poverty level are called low-income children, and their families are called low-income families. As high as the US childhood poverty rate is, twice-poverty data again paint an even more discouraging picture. The poverty rate for US children is the highest of all wealthy democracies and in fact is 1.5 to 9 times greater than the corresponding rates in Canada and Western Europe (Mishel, et. About 37 percent of all children live in poverty for at least one year before turning 18 (Ratcliffe & McKernan, 2010). Turning to age, at any one time 22 percent of children under age 18 are poor (amounting to 16.4 million children), a figure that rises to about 39 percent of African American children and 35 percent of Latino children. (Because there are so many non-Latino whites in the United States, the greatest number of poor people are non-Latino white, even if the percentage of whites who are poor is relatively low.) The higher poverty rates of people of color are so striking and important that they have been termed the “colors of poverty” (Lin & Harris, 2008). Thus African Americans and Latinos are almost three times as likely as non-Latino whites to be poor. While only 9.9 percent of non-Latino whites are poor, 27.4 percent of African Americans, 12.1 percent of Asians, and 26.6 percent of Latinos (who may be of any race) are poor (see Figure 2.3 “Race, Ethnicity, and Poverty, 2010 (Percentage of Each Group That Is Poor)”). It is also true, though, that race and ethnicity affect the chances of being poor. Turning these percentages into numbers, they account for 19.6 million of the 46.2 million poor Americans. As these figures show, non-Latino whites certainly comprise the greatest number of the American poor. To be more precise, 42.4 percent of poor people are white (non-Latino), 28.7 percent are Latino, 23.1 percent are black, and 3.7 percent are Asian (see Figure 2.2 “Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Poor, 2010 (Percentage of Poor Persons Who Belong to Each Group)”). ![]() ![]() Unfortunately, the public’s racial image of poor people is mistaken, as census data reveal that the most typical poor person is white (non-Latino). Franco Folini – Homeless guys with dogs – CC BY-SA 2.0. ![]()
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